The Mech Touch

Ves dressed up for today. He wore the dress uniform version of his outfit complete with badges and lustrous red cape.

The reason for doing so became very clear as he entered one of the hangar bays of the Spirit of Bentheim.

The entire place had been cleared out of the usual Bright Warriors, shuttles and other junk that ordinarily occupied this large compartment.

In their place stood large, massive mechs whose bulk and size completely suppressed the Larkinsons attending this solemn ceremony in person.

Many different decorations covered up the metallic and utilitarian interior. White banners depicting a stylized eye outlined in black featured prominently around the Larkinsons. The pupil of the eye also contained a small and barely noticeable figure of a mech.

Though the identity of the group behind the banner was not immediately apparent, the other banners and decorations were quite familiar to those who once visited the Ylvaine Protectorate.

The typical symbols of the Ylvainan Faith as well as statues and other depictions of the Great Prophet himself made it abundantly clear that this ceremony completely centered around a certain religious sub-group within the Larkinson Clan!

The only disturbing element of the decor was that the Ylvainans had also been liberal about placing lifelike statues of Ves around the place. He tried his best to ignore the implications of their presence.

"Gather up!"

Many Larkinsons had squeezed into the hangar bay at the moment. The entire clan knew this was an important moment in its history. The Penitent Sisters had been the latest mech force to become a part of the clan's fighting forces, and that happened such a long time ago that the majority of new members weren't even present!

A huge number of Larkinsons possessed no special attachment to the Komodo Star Sector. Even though this was the birthplace of the founders and early members of the Larkinson Clan, the ones that came afterwards only possessed a dubious connection to this remote region.

Ves inwardly shook his head at the realization. The further the expeditionary fleet traveled, the more the original Komodo influence became diluted. The assimilation of tens of thousands of Lifers, Heavensworders and Purnessers fundamentally altered the cultural makeup of the clan.

Though the original Larkinson values and principles still remained dominant, the growing diversity underneath this major undercurrent caused the clan to shift in a direction that Ves didn't particularly like but could do nothing to prevent.

There were only so many trueblood Larkinsons available. When he originally made his decision to open up his clan to external recruitment, he anticipated that a situation like this would come.

It was too late to feel any regret, not that it mattered all that much. Ves was much happier about the benefits that rapid growth and expansion brought. He would have never been able to command tens of thousands of mech pilots, have several genuine expert pilots at his disposal, acquire several strategic capital ships and have the guts to travel to the Red Ocean without accepting a lot of newcomers to the fold.

Ultimately, he was pleased with the present state of his clan. The overall mood among the gathered Larkinsons was both harmonious and energetic. This was especially now that they were about to celebrate an important occasion.

When Ves walked up to the podium, he briefly nodded to General Verle before moving over a pair of notable clansmen.

Taon Melin possessed a much different demeanor from last time. The expert candidate that had contributed much in the Battle of Reckoning previously seemed out of place as the leader of the small but influential Ylvainan contingent among the clansmen.

He no longer looked lost anymore. The former elite mech pilot of the Ylvaine Protectorate had matured quickly during the last couple months. Like many admirable people, Taon rose to the occasion when the Ylvainans thrust a lot of responsibility in his hands.

To be honest, Taon was not the most appropriate choice to lead the Ylvainans. As an expert candidate, he should be focusing full-time on polishing his skills and closing the distance to the coveted rank of expert pilot.

However, it appeared he ultimately accepted the need for the Ylvainans to rally around a leader with a notable identity within the group. The Living Prophet's shoes were hard to fill for any person, so Ves didn't envy Taon's role.

Currently, the expert candidate was garbed in a pure white robe that only contained enough accents to accentuate his special status.

Different people wore robes in different ways. Some were able to exude peace and serenity like the Living Prophet. Others resembled corpses that had risen up from coffins. A few might even make the impression that they were shifty fugitives who were on the run from the law.

Taon's demeanor did not match any of those impressions. Instead, Ves saw a mixture of a soldier, a leader and a priest.

Yes, a priest. As he stepped closer and closer, Ves mentally felt as if he approached a holy figure. Though Taon was far from matching the pure and radiant presence of James Ylvaine, the expert candidate's nascent force of will had shifted in character.

It was as if Taon had become a magnet to the adherents of the Ylvainan Faith. Anyone who shared his beliefs would instinctively feel close to him. This was a quality that only true leaders possessed.

"Bright Martyr." He greeted to Ves.

"Patriarch Ves." Samandra Avikon bowed.

The woman standing next to Taon was an odd sight, and not because of her altered glowing orange reptilian eyes. She wore a similar garment that of the Ylvainan leader, only hers was slimmer and less ostentatious.

Ves looked a bit taken aback at her current appearance. The former Lifer was supposed to be a priestess of a cult called Spiritus Sancti. Why did she attend this ceremony in the garb of an Ylvainan?

The question on his face was as clear as day. Both Taon and Samandra looked at each other for a moment before the latter decided to explain.

"We people of faith have a lot more in common than we thought." The middle-aged woman began. "When my compatriots and I became a part of this blessed clan, we were struggling to find our place. As you can imagine, our beliefs centered around the divinity of the flesh, but biomechs do not hold much appeal to the majority of your clansmen."

Ves twitched his lips. He could clearly imagine how much difficulty Samandra endured in trying to expand her whacky ideas.

Outside of the current crew of the Dragon's Den and a couple of other starships, everyone in the Larkinson Clan was accustomed to piloting or working with metallic mechs!

Organic mechs already looked like monsters to normal people, and the debacle surrounding Uranus didn't help matters either. How could ordinary Larkinsons ever be stupid enough to believe that mechs made with flesh and blood were gods?

Spiritus Sancti was so bad at converting people that it had never achieved popularity in the Life Research Association, the state which held the most friendly attitude towards biomechs!

Another reason why the messengers of this quirky faith failed to gain any purchase was because they were just too odd. For example, Samandra's faithful demeanor was exceptional, but her reptilian eyes ruined the entire picture.

"So you decided to give up and change your coat to that of an Ylvainan?" Ves skeptically frowned.

Samandra gently shook her head. "We did not betray our faith, Bright Martyr. Far from it. We expanded it by recognizing that Prophet Ylvaine speaks for Spiritus Sancti as well."

"You'll have to explain that to me, because I don't see the relation between Ylvaine and organic mechs."

Samandra frowned. "I thought you would have been very clear about this relation seeing that you are the principal apostle of our faith."

Ves looked befuddled.

"...My fellow believers and I recognize and acknowledge the divinity in mechs, specifically biomechs. They are great machines and can be so much more than just tools for war. It is a pity that most citizens in states such as the Life Research Association are ignorant of this reality."

"So what brought you to the Ylvainan Faith, then?" He asked with a touch of impatience.

"Taon here is different." Samandra directed a grateful smile at the expert candidate. "Different from my fellow citizens in this fleet, the Ylvainans are a lot more open-minded towards the teachings that I believe in. After engaging in extensive doctrinal discussions with the priests and scholars of the Ylvainan Faith, we found that our respective beliefs do not actually conflict with each other. In fact, it is the opposite. Our ideas fit together like a puzzle."

"You'll have to explain that further."

"The Great Prophet speaks of a time of Time of Ascension where all sentient lifeforms, whether they are human or aliens, will turn into gods." Taon reiterated. "The mission of Prophet Ylvaine has always been to forewarn everyone about this change and prepare for this inevitable transformation."

"I know this."

"However, the prophet has never stated that the life that is eligible to ascend to godhood has to remain within what most people usually consider to be sentient, intelligent life."

Samandra Avikon smiled. "Bright Martyr, do you believe that mechs are alive?"

"Yes. Of course. That's the fundamental pillar of my work."

"Are organic mechs alive?"

"They can be." Ves admitted. "I haven't seen any of them yet, though. The biomechs developed by the Lifer mech industry are only imitations of life. They possess the form but lack the soul of life."

"We agree, Bright Martyr. Of all of the mechs in existence, only yours are truly alive. I am eagerly awaiting your first true biomech design. I believe that all of our skeptics will be proven wrong at that time."

Taon took over from here. "My people and I never put much thought behind the implications that the mechs we pilot on a daily basis like the Transcendent Punisher are alive, but after we began to exchange with Spiritus Sancti, we realized that we missed a major gap. Mechs, like humans and aliens, are intelligent and alive. If this is the case, then the Time of Ascension will not only elevate us into godhood, but also the mechs that have served as our trusted combat partners!"

"Don't you see, Bright Martyr?" Samandra's eyes glowed brighter. "The Great Prophet had long acknowledged that organic mechs are also gods, or at least eligible to reach this height! He is right that everyone had always been his followers even though we never heard of his tenets in the first place. We just had to find our place within his prophecies!"

The two believers became so fanatical that Ves could hardly believe what he heard.

What he just heard sounded internally consistent, but was actually a huge pile of crap!

His skepticism produced a more likely scenario of a desperate group of cultists that was on the verge of irrelevance. In desperation, Samandra flocked to the larger and more successful group of religious clansmen and contorted her beliefs to such an extreme that she was able to justify the merger between the Ylvainan Faith and Spiritus Sancti!

His expression made it clear that he took a dim view of this development, but Taon and Samandra didn't seem to notice.

"Whatever." He shrugged. "It will be easier for the clan to manage one less religious group, I suppose. Let's just proceed with the ceremony so I can get back to work."

Ves was rather amazed at the adaptability of the Ylvainans and their beliefs. From what Ves could observe, the Ylvainans had already absorbed Samandra Avikon and integrated her odd beliefs into their own belief system!

Though a part of Ves was happy that more and more people started to take living mechs seriously, he never intended for others to take advantage of this assumption in this manner!

Not all expressions of life were good. Just like humans, mechs could become evil as well.

"First Ketis, now the Ylvainans, who is next?"

He had a feeling that it would only be getting worse over time.